The Marion City Council is just one vote away from launching construction of the city's new police station.

Council members voted unanimously Tuesday afternoon to lease about five acres of city-owned property to Bankers Trust, which will be the trustee for the project, structured as a lease-purchase agreement to give the city more control over the selection of contractor.

The contractor -- the council will vote Thursday on a $10.4 million contract with Miron Construction for the project -- will own the building until it's completed, when it will sell it to Bankers, City Manager Lon Pluckhahn said. The city will issue lease certificates, similar to bonds and paid off with property tax revenue, to pay the cost and will become owner of the building and and its site when it's paid for.

The resolution passed Tuesday sets the lease at approximately 50 years, "but the city will pay it off well in advance of that," Pluckhahn said.

The council usually doesn't vote during its Tuesday work sessions, but convened a brief special meeting to approve the lease. Pluckhahn said the lease needed approval today so Bankers and Miron could finalize lease details before the council's vote Thursday on the $10,439,149 contract for the station's construction.

Pluckhahn said the project remains within the $12 million budget set by the council in January. Wilson Estes Police Architects of Kansas City, Mo., designed the new station, which will replace the 1983 structure at 3911 Katz Dr.

The new station will be at 6300 N. Gateway Dr., in a business park near the Marion Airport.

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